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This introduction to the book has five sections. These cover discussion of: the pathways to Bengali Hindu Śākta poetry (sources, precedents, and influences); the 164 compositions by 37 representative poets for the goddesses Kālī and Umā that are included in the book; family resemblances — the Śākta Padavali (collected poems to the goddess — a genre of poetry focussed on Kālī and Umā) as bhakti (devotional attitude) poetry; the challenges and choices in designing an anthology; and notes on transliteration, translation, and word definition.

Translations of ten Bengali Hindu Śākta poems are presented, each prefaced by an explanatory introduction. The poems are: Kālī among the corpses: poems of battle; The cosmic goddess of transformation; The magician's daughter and her playful deceptions; “What kind of mother are you?” Cries of complaint; Petitioning the compassionate; “Oh my mind!”: instructing the self; Prioritizing paths: Tantra, devotion, and ritual; The experience of Kuṇḍalinī yoga; In defiance of death; and Adoring the daughter: Āgamanī and Vijayā poems for Umā.

The central concern of this book is the influence of bhakti, or the devotional attitude, in transforming perceptions of Hindu deities and their famous poet‐saints. Methodologically, this study combines textual, historical, and anthropological approaches: transformations in the presentation of the goddesses Kālī and Umā, and their poets are charted through historical reconstructions of textual history and augmented, for the modern period, by fieldwork carried out in West Bengal, India, in 1988–90, 1991, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 1999. The book has three principal aims: the first is to introduce the life stories and contexts of Śākta poet‐devotees who, though not much known outside Bengal, represent an important three‐hundred year literary and spiritual tradition centered around Hindu goddesses; the second is to provide the material necessary for the Bengali Śākta padas (short poems written according to a particular meter and rhyme) to be noticed, discussed, and recognized within the larger field of bhakti literary studies; and the third is to contribute to a “history of ideas” about Bengali goddesses.

A detailed look is taken at the historical context of eighteenth‐century to nineteenth‐century Bengal (India) as background to the following study of the Hindu Śākta poets. Its various sections cover: the rise of the zamindaris (wealthy landowner estates) in late Mughal Bengal; the Mārāṭhā raids (the Mārāṭhās were the princely and military classes of the former Hindu kingdom of Maharashtra); the expansion of British power; the famine of 1770; zamindaris and British policies in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; zamindari patronage of the arts; why Śākta poetry now?; and the nouveaux riches of Calcutta and the place of Śākta poetry.

This is a study of the Hindu Śākta poet Rāmprasād Sen (ca. 1718–1775), who has long been recognized as the premier Bengali Śākta poet, although very little is actually known about him. The approach adopted is to combine what historical material there is with looking at his poetry and various biographical legends. The largest section of the chapter looks at the available manuscripts on Rāmprasād, and includes quotations from his poetry and various historical illustrations; this is followed by a brief look at Rāmprasād's temple in Halishar. The next part of the chapter tries to create a composite portrait of Rāmprasād by examining the nature of his relationship with the Nadia rajas, the degree to which he should be treated as a Tāntrika, and his place within the Śākta tradition; these topics provide clear examples of the way in which Rāmprasād has been used and interpreted by his descendants and admirers. The last part of the chapter draws inferences on the “real” Rāmprasād.

This is a study of the Bengali Hindu Śākta poet Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya (ca. 1769–1821), a sādhaka (one who engages in spiritual austerities, often Tantric). He is regarded as the second‐ranking figure (in chronology as well as talent) of the Śākta Padāvalī (a collection of short sung verses or padas of the Śākta persuasion) genre, and most of his biographers depict him as following the example of Rāmprasād Sen both poetically and in lifestyle. The three stages in the progression of ideas and modes of presentation in the Bengali biographical literature on Kamalākānta are examined, with quotations from his poetry. An account is also given of efforts to commemorate his life through buildings and monuments in the Burdwan area, and of another site associated with him at Baj Baj (south of Calcutta). Three case studies are then presented that chart changes in the depiction of Kamalākānta over time, and finally some historical judgments made of him are revisited.

This chapter is mainly a study of the literary heirs of the Hindu Śākta poets Rāmprasād Sen and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya in Bengal. These are divided into two groups — Śākta poets before 1857, those from the mid‐nineteenth century to the present. There are only a few of these whose biographies are full enough to afford a comparison with Rāmprasād and Kamalākānta, but a common theme of the biographies is indifference to the world. The next part of the chapter addresses recent biographies of certain Bengali Śākta sādhakas (those who engage in spiritual austerities, often Tantric) whose life stories resemble those of Rāmprasād and Kamalākānta more clearly than those of most of the poets already examined. Following on from this, an examination is made of women poets in the Śākta tradition, and finally the best representatives of Śākta “pastness” are examined.

Introduces the textual and ceremonial influences on the emerging Hindu Śākta literature in eighteenth‐century Bengal. It traces the Sanskrit and Bengali textual precedents, and Vaiṣṇavism. It then looks at the ritual and devotional practices of the era.

An assessment is made of Rāmprasād Sen's poetic contributions to the Bengali Hindu Śākta literature in the light of the textual precedents examined in the last chapter. The first part of the chapter looks briefly at the texts, editions, and musical notations. The remainder is mostly devoted to the Kālī‐centered poetry, with a short section following it on the Umā‐centered poetry, and a brief roundup. Many quotations are included.

An assessment is made of Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya's poetic contributions to the Bengali Hindu Śākta literature in the light of the textual precedents examined in Ch. 5. The first part of the chapter looks briefly at the texts, editions, and musical notations. The remainder is devoted to the Kālī‐centered poetry, examining in turn the Śākta padas, and a Tantric meditation manual, Sādhak Rañjan (which is treated more briefly). Many quotations are included. A short conclusion assesses Kamalākānta's role in evolving trends in the goddesses Kālī and Umā.

The discussion of Rāmprasād Sen's and Kamalākānta Bhaṭṭācārya's poetic contributions to the Bengali Hindu Śākta literature in the last two chapters is brought up to the present by referring comparatively to the literary output of other important Śākta poets, so as to gauge trends and themes in the poetic genre as a whole. The first part of the chapter discusses the intersection of nineteenth‐century and twentieth‐century literature with interest in the goddesses Kālī and Umā, and the rest (the main part) examines in chronological order the poetry to the two goddesses of several major eighteenth‐century to twentieth‐century poets. The underlying interpretative questions are the ways in which and degrees to which these depart from the examples and trends set by Rāmprasād and Kamalākānta. Many quotations are included.

This concluding chapter has three aims. These are: to recapitulate and comment upon the nuances of the relationship between bhakti (or the devotional attitude) and Tantra as it is expressed in Bengal; to offer some conceptual and theoretical models that may help to explain the rise of this poetry tradition and its (at least partial) success in taming, humanizing, and universalizing Kālī and Umā; and finally to place these softened goddesses of the Bengali Śākta poets in an all‐India context by highlighting similarities and differences between their travels and those of other Hindu and Buddhist deities.